Ricardo Pereira

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For the Portuguese comedian, see Ricardo de Araújo Pereira.

Ricardo
Image:Ricardoportugal.JPG
Personal information
Full name	Ricardo Alexandre Martins Soares Pereira
Date of birth	February 11, 1976
Place of birth	Montijo, Portugal
Height	185cm
Nickname	Mãozinhas (Little Hands) Labreca Sabe-Tudo (Knows-All)
Position	Goalkeeper
Club information
Current club	Sporting CP
Number	1
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1993–1994 1994–2003 2003–present 1 Only in league games	CD Montijo Boavista FC Sporting Lisbon	18 (0)1 154 (1)1 101 (0)1
National team**
2001–	Portugal	61 (0)
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 29 May 2006. ** National team caps and goals correct as of 15 November 2006.

Ricardo Pereira, usually referred to simply as Ricardo (pron. IPA: [ʁi'kaɾdu]; full name Ricardo Alexandre Martins Soares Pereira, OIH; born February 11, 1976 in Montijo), is a Portuguese football player.

As a goalkeeper, Ricardo was the hero of Boavista FC's European campaign in 2003, making a string of saves as his team reached the semifinals of the UEFA Cup.

He now plays at Sporting Lisbon at club level and has been goalkeeper for Portugal since Luiz Felipe Scolari chose him for the spot.

He made his international debut in 2001 against the Republic of Ireland, taking the place of Vitor Baía, who was recovering from a serious knee injury.

[edit] Euro 2004

In the quarterfinals of Euro 2004 against England, Ricardo was one of Portugal's heroes in their win on penalties. With the penalty shootout tied 5-5, he first saved the shot of Darius Vassell after taking his gloves off, and then scored the deciding penalty against England to send Portugal to the semifinals.

Nevertheless, Ricardo did not manage to help his team avoid the loss from Greece in the final match of Euro 2004. Ricardo jumped helplessly in an attempt to save the only goal of the game, however he was blocked from grabbing the ball by Angelos Charisteas who managed to score the goal.

[edit] 2006 World Cup

Ricardo and his team won all three games in their group, keeping two clean sheets and only being beaten once by Mexico's Francisco Fonseca.

A string of saves by Ricardo allowed Portugal once again knock out England in the quarter-finals of a major championships on penalties, this time the 2006 FIFA World Cup as he saved from Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher in a 3-1 shoot-out win after a 0-0 draw after extra time. It is the first time during a World Cup event, that a goal keeper has managed to stop 3 penalties. In fact, every penalty taken against him in that World Cup he managed to get a hand to, as spotted by Mark Lawrenson, who was amazed that he seemed to know each time where the penalty would go. This feat made him in equal parts hero among fans who wouldn't let supporting a certain club give them a bias as well as a first-choice keeper in Fantasy Football leagues and video games but made him infamous among devout England fans for making fools of their main penalty-takers.

• Penalty Shootout - England vs Portugal video

The semi-final match pitted Portugal against France. The only goal Ricardo did concede in this game was a penalty spot kick by Zinedine Zidane, awarded for a foul by Ricardo Carvalho over Thierry Henry inside the penalty area (contested by some Portuguese supporters, even though Ricardo Carvalho admitted touching Henry ^[1])), which would turn out to be the winning goal as France won 1-0. During the final minutes of the game, Ricardo rushed forward towards the French penalty area in order to give his team an additional chance of scoring from a corner kick.

During the third place match against hosts Germany, Ricardo kept a clean sheet for the first half. In the second half, he was badly beaten by Bastian Schweinsteiger's two goals and an own goal, also off his shot, by Portugal's Petit.

	Portugal squad - 2002 FIFA World Cup
1 Baía | 2 J. Costa | 3 Xavier | 4 Caneira | 5 Couto | 6 Sousa | 7 Figo | 8 Pinto | 9 Pauleta | 10 Rui Costa | 11 Conceição | 12 Viana | 13 Andrade | 14 Barbosa | 15 Nélson | 16 Ricardo | 17 Bento | 18 Frechaut | 19 Capucho | 20 Petit | 21 Nuno Gomes | 22 Beto | 23 Rui Jorge | Coach: Oliveira

	Portugal squad - 2006 FIFA World Cup Fourth Place
1 Ricardo | 2 Ferreira | 3 Caneira | 4 Costa | 5 Meira | 6 Costinha | 7 Figo | 8 Petit | 9 Pauleta | 10 Viana | 11 Simão | 12 Quim | 13 Miguel | 14 Valente | 15 Boa Morte | 16 Carvalho | 17 Ronaldo | 18 Maniche | 19 Tiago | 20 Deco | 21 Nuno Gomes | 22 Santos | 23 Postiga | Coach: Scolari

Sporting Clube de Portugal - Current Squad
1 Ricardo | 4 Polga | 8 Ronny | 10 C. Martins | 11 Tello | 12 Caneira | 13 Tonel | 15 M. Garcia | 16 Tiago | 18 Nani | 19 Alecsandro | 20 Y. Djaló | 21 P. Farnerud | 22 R. Patrício | 24 M. Veloso | 27 Custódio | 28 Moutinho | 30 Romagnoli | 31 Liédson | 34 J. Alves | 76 Paredes | 78 Abel | 80 Bueno | Manager: P. Bento